AHC: Balkans stay fully Christian

Your challenge is to create a scenario in which the present-day Balkans (Croatia, B+H, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia) stay fully Christian.

Bonus points if this happens without the Byzantines.
 
Timur is ferried across the Dardanalles by the Italians and reaks havoc on the Ottoman Empire. Once he dies besieging some no name town in the Balkans, his army withdraws, leaving the Balkans open for just about anyone to fill in the vaccum left behind by the Ottomans.
 

GdwnsnHo

Banned
The Bulgarians steam-roll the Byzantine Empire from the west, whilst another polity invades Anatolia.

The Byzantines manage to hold Anatolia and Constantinople, but lose the Balkans to the Bulgarians. They focus on reclaiming the Levant and the East. Success in the Levant and Egypt convinces the Emperor that relocating to Alexandria, or a ready-built capital may be worth it since Bulgaria is too strong after a successful invasion of Pannonia.

After a decade of transferring the wealth and people of Constantinople to Alexandria (Or alt-capital) the Byzantine Emperor institutes a plan that renders Constantinople a key trade port and military centre, rather than capital.

The Alexandrians (as historians would call this period) manage to survive rather well, resolving issues between Coptic and Orthodox Christianity, focusing on conquering Ethiopia.

The Alexandrians eventually go east, following the trade routes, setting up colonies, whilst the west eventually circumnavigates Africa to avoid paying Alexandrian prices for goods.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarians maintain control over the Balkans, eventually displacing the Greek population, which centres in Anatolia.

By modern times, the Alexandrian Empire has lost Anatolia (known as Greece), and many of its colonial possessions (although it is still a trade power) - Bulgaria eventually took Constantinople and has its capital in Tsargrad.
 
Just have the Ottomans not luck out as much in the first decades of their subjugation of the Balkans (or have the native Balkan states luck out more, which amounts to the same thing). Preventing the Byzantine civil war should be enough, but even if that happens anyway, preventing Serbia's civil war and decentralization - or Bulgaria's splintering into 2-3 pieces - would probably do the trick.
 
Your challenge is to create a scenario in which the present-day Balkans (Croatia, B+H, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia) stay fully Christian.

Bonus points if this happens without the Byzantines.

Muslims barely make 1% of Croatia. In fact, most of the non-Christians (less than 8%) are city-dwelling atheists, so OTL fulfills the OP for Croatia at least. Inner Serbia is also basically "Muslim-free", i.e. Serbia without the Sandžak and Kosovo.

And why did you not put Bulgaria, Greece and Turkish Thrace in your definition of the "Balkans"?

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As for how to keep it fully Christian, a surviving Byzantine Empire is the best answer, but since we`re looking for bonus points I`d say that the Great Turkish War (or Great Vienna War as it is also known) is your best bet. Just prevent French intervention, and the Austrians might get all the way to Constantinopole in the war. The Muslim populations of the "liberated" (conquered actually) Balkan territories will probably dissapear through expulsion and assimilation, like it happened in most of the Balkans.
 
Have the Byzantine empire fall to pagan or Christian barbarians (like the WRE did), so you have multiple statelets all independent. If some of them are conquered by Muslims (say), they possibly a 'reconquista' to kick them out à la Spain. But better, have the Bulgars and Avars and early Turks (before they others converted to Islam) conquer the territory and be absorbed by the Christian folk there.

Then you probably also have a whole language family of Hellenic tongues (like, in the West, you have a whole family of Romance ones).

Plus, the Slavic ones, etc.
 
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